


Close Encounters of the Animatied Kind

by Will_Keaton



Category: Men in Black: The Series, Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens Myths and Legends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Will_Keaton/pseuds/Will_Keaton
Summary: An analysis discussingMen in Black: The Series, andRoswell Conspiracies: Aliens Myths and Legends, comparing the two shows.





	Close Encounters of the Animatied Kind

I've come here because I'd like to talk about a couple of animated shows from the late 90s. I'm comparing these two shows because they both have the same premise: an Earth-based, clandestine organization acts to protect the planet from the aliens that would wish us harm, while keeping the existence of the alien life that lives on Earth a secret from society at large. The two shows are _Men in Black: The Series_ and _Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends_. Now, I'm willing to bet you're familiar with the _Men in Black_ films, even if you're not aware there is an corresponding animated series based off them, or the first film anyway. _Roswell Conspiracies_ however, is obscure, and I think that's a shame, because I think it's better than _Men in Black_.

As a Canadian, I didn't get a lot of American channels. What I did get was YTV. A lot of American shows would come to YTV after a delay. One weekend however, there was some sort of mix-up, and while trying to watch YTV on channel 20, I instead found myself watching WB. I remember turning it on in the middle of the _Batman Beyond_ episode “Shriek.” Now, I didn't know what I was watching at first, and it took me a while to piece together the premise and learn that this was a sequel to _Batman: The Animated Series_ , set years later, with an elderly Bruce Wayne and a teenager as the new Batman. That same weekend I also saw the _Superman: The Animated Series_ episode “Superman's Pal” and the _Men in Black_ episode “The Sonic Boom Syndrome.”

That's how I first saw _Men in Black: The Series_. Some time later the show came to YTV and I could watch it without there being a mix-up at the cable company. I don't know if I had seen the movie at this point, but I was definitely aware of it. Said movie is about a group of agents called the Men in Black, a secret organization that answers to no government, who act as cops and deal with aliens living on Earth. One agent, Kay, recruits a new partner, Jay, and trains him. At the end of the movie Kay retires, and has Jay remove all his memories of aliens using a device called a neuralyzer. In the animated series however, Kay never left the MIB. I initially thought that the first episode of the series would explain how Kay got his memory back, but this never happens. The first episode has both agents working side-by-side from the start, Jay already having been recruited. One episode, “The Big Bad Bug Syndrome,” has a flashback to the end of the _Men in Black_ movie, showing the main antagonist being killed, implying that the events of the movie did occur in some form. But this causes another problem. In the movie there is a character named Laurel, who starts as a civilian coroner and ends up deeply involved in the plot of the film, then becomes an agent, Elle, and Jay’s new partner after Kay is neuralyzed. However, in the series, Elle has been with the MIB for longer than Jay, though she's not a field agent, instead working in the lab. So this series clearly takes place in its own continuity.

_Men in Black: The Series_ ran for four seasons from 1997 to 2001, totalling 53 episodes. Every episode starts with a cold open, that is, a sequence before the opening credits. These sequences are usually not related to the main plot of the episode, though sometimes they are, especially in Season Four. Also, every episode had the title “The X Syndrome,” where X could be any word or phrase. Mind you the show doesn’t display the episode titles anywhere in the actual episode. The show was created by a group called Adelaide Productions. These are the same people responsible for making _Extreme Ghostbusters_ , _Godzilla: The Series_ , _Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot_ and _Jackie Chan Adventures_. I’ve never seen _Extreme Ghostbusters_ , but I really enjoyed those other three shows when they were on the air.

_Men in Black: The Series_ is set mostly in New York City, and only rarely does the show leave this setting. The main cast consists of experienced Agent Kay, rookie Agent Jay, Zed, the leader of the Men in Black, and Elle, the tech guru. There are several recurring characters, like Frank, an alien who looks like a dog, four worm guys who hang out in MIB headquarters and drink lots of coffee, and Jeebs, an alien who sells illegal weapons and has the ability to regrow body parts after they have been blown off. All these guys were characters from the first film, as this series was made between movies one and two. They were all in one scene each, Jeebs being interrogated for selling illegal weapons and alien and Frank acting as informant. However, in their one scene in the movie, the worm guys were drinking coffee, and in the series the worms were written to be completely obsessed with the stuff. One criticism people level at the second _Men in Black_ film is that minor characters like these guys were given larger roles, at the expense of screen time that could be used for other stuff. In a series however, it's not unreasonable that some side characters would get an episode or two dedicated to them, and they certainly never overshadow Jay and Kay. Sadly, the twins, Idikiukup and Bob, do not get an episode to themselves and only have a minor role in the series.

There were a few recurring villains in this series, most notably Alpha. Alpha used to be an MIB agent named A. However, he was jealous of all the cool stuff aliens could do, so he stole a device that let him take stolen alien parts and integrate them into his own body. Over the course of the series he becomes less and less human. He's basically the main antagonist and appears in nine episodes. Even though Alpha acts as an arch-nemesis for the MIB, most episodes are very episodic and stand on their own, though there are a few recurring plot points. Besides Alpha, there are a few other recurring characters. A few episodes deal with the bugs, the same species as Edgar, the main villain of the original film. In the original movie there was a group of aliens called the Arquillians, who were very tiny, and got around by piloting robots who looked like humans. This series gave them a nemesis, Fmeks, who are also very small and hate the Arquillians. There was an alien symbiote named Troy who showed up a few times and an alien bounty hunter named Buzzard who tussled with the MIB a couple times in the first season. In two episodes, one of which was “The Sonic Boom Syndrome,” an alien cop named Aileen came to Earth. She and Kay have a bit of a history together, as they both like each other, but they both put their jobs first.

This series was created between the first and second movies, but it also touched upon a few plot threads that would be used in the second and third films. In “The Neuralyzer Syndrome” Jay accidentally uses his Neuralyzer on Kay and wipes out his memory, all the way back to his teenage years. Jay then has to restore Kay’s lost memory. This is a similar scenario to the second film, where Kay also has to have his memory restored. The difference is, in the series, Kay believes himself to be a teenager and ends up fighting aliens with Jay until his memory can be restored. In the second film there is a threat to the Earth and Kay has to be pulled out of retirement because he knows the location of something that will save the planet. The third film featured a villain traveling back in time and killing K, thus altering the future. Jay is the only one who remembers the earlier timeline and must go back in time to save Kay’s life. In the episode “The Head Trip Syndrome,” Jay messes with an alien device that makes him so smart he's immune to alterations to the timeline. During this period, an unknown person begins using a time machine to go back in time to wipe out the founding members of the MIB. These two similar plots differ in their focus. In the movie, the focus is on Jay in the past interacting with a younger Kay and hunting down the villain. In the episode of the series, Jay and Kay are in the present and keep experiencing changes to the timeline, each one making the MIB smaller and smaller, while they try to unravel the mystery of who is changing time and how.

I like _Men in Black: The Series_ , but it has its flaws. For one, Agent Jay is kind of a screw-up. In a large number of episodes he does something he's been told not to do and it causes problems. In “The “J” is for James Syndrome” Jay goes for a joyride in Kay’s car, and he causes so much property damage that he gets fired from the MIB and has his memory erased. On the other end of the spectrum, Kay is sometimes shown to be too good. In “The Baby Kay Syndrome” Kay gets turned into a baby, though he keeps all his mental faculties. You'd think the episode would take this opportunity to maybe show that Kay isn't invincible and needs to learn to rely on his friends, but nope. Jay gets in trouble and Kay, as a baby, must rescue him. The moral of the story, is “even as a baby, Kay is a better agent than Jay.” I'm not exaggerating either, they literally say that almost verbatim in the episode. Also, the Kay in the series has a personality that’s much more stiff and rigid than the Kay in the films.

The show’s art style altered slightly between the first and second seasons. At this time they also recast Agent Kay. Then the show underwent a minor retooling in the fourth season. Elle was recast, and then promoted to field agent where she partnered with Agent X, who happens to be an alien. Elle and X don't exactly get along. With Elle not in the lab anymore she is replaced by Dr. Zan'dozz Zeeltor, also an alien. Alpha now starts using robot parts to rebuild himself and he also teams up with the Ixions, a group of invading aliens who have come to Earth to steal its oil. The episode “The Opening Gambit Syndrome” establishes that Alpha knows the Ixion leader and is working with him. In the series finale, and the show’s only two-part episode, “The Endgame Syndrome,” Alpha and the Ixions begin a full scale invasion of Earth. This finale does a decent enough job of acting as a conclusion to the series, ending on a bittersweet note.

I like how the series went into greater detail regarding things like the worm guys, Frank, Arquillians and the bugs, building on the lore established by the first movie. In contrast, every subsequent film went off in a new direction, even though the second film did give a lot of screen time to Frank and the worms. Overall, I think I prefer the animated series continuity to the movie one.

Now, _Men in Black: The Series_ is obviously based on the _Men in Black_ movie, but that film is partially based on a comic book called _The Men in Black_ , published by Malibu Comics. It has a similar premise, but this MIB doesn't deal exclusively with aliens. They also deal with cults, demons and other supernatural stuff. Also, while the _Men in Black_ movies and series have a strong comedic leaning, the comic is super serious all the time. In the first issue, veteran agent Kay recruits DEA agent Jay against his will. While the MIB in the movies and series are pretty unquestionably good, the comic version of Kay is willing to do anything to accomplish his mission, including murder, and Kay is very callous about it. Jay objects to a lot of Kay's methods, but it seems that most of the rest of the organization operates the way Kay does, and Jay is the outlier. Granted, we never see any other agents, and Zed only ever appears as a disembodied voice who orders Jay and Kay around. Also, Kay never takes off his sunglasses, even in the shower. There was one character, Agent Ecks, who went rogue and quit the MIB years ago. In the movie and series, when you quit the MIB, you get neuralyzed. In the comic it means you get executed, and Kay tries to kill Ecks as soon as they cross paths again. Ecks isn't evil like Alpha, he quit because he learned that the MIB were amoral and possibly trying to take over the planet.

The other show I want to talk about is _Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends_. I recall one night I woke up past midnight and could not get back to sleep, so I turned on the TV. I came across an episode of a show called _Roswell Conspiracies_. I watched said episode, and was absolutely blown away. It was just fantastic. Thing is though, about halfway through, I realized that this wasn't a typical episode of the show, it was part of the grand finale. Sure enough, the episode ended on such a definitive note I knew it was the final episode. I looked up the show on the TV schedule and found it also aired early in the morning, so I watched it a second time there. Next day I tuned in for the early morning slot and was greeted by what was obviously the first episode. But after that finale I just knew I had to watch the whole series and learn every little detail about the show.

_Roswell Conspiracies_ ran for one 40 episode season in 1999 and 2000, on a network called BKN. Obviously I saw it on YTV later. I only heard it was made specifically for BKN years after the fact. It's a good show, it really is, but no one has ever heard of it because no one has heard of BKN. The voice cast is made up of actors from the Vancouver area. If you've watched _Reboot_ , _Beast Wars_ or any number of anime like _Gundam Wing_ , _Gunadm SEED_ , _Death Note_ or _Inuyasha_ , you're going to recognize these voices.

The premise of _Roswell Conspiracies_ is that aliens have been living on Earth for centuries. You know those old stories about werewolves? In the lore of this show, werewolves are really a species of alien called Lycanthropes. Vampires? Also aliens. Banshees, Yetis, all aliens. Now there is a group called the Alliance that is dedicated to keeping the existence of aliens a secret, and also aims to stop aliens from taking over the planet. They operate from the hollowed-out inside of Mount Willard, a fictional mesa located in the New Mexico desert. Like the MIB, the Alliance does not answer to any government.

While _Men in Black_ had dozens of alien species, most of which only appeared for one episode, then disappear, _Roswell Conspiracies_ focuses on about half a dozen alien races, and they all get significant screen-time. Lycanthropes are canine looking aliens. When they are young they imprint on a human, then they can shape-shift to look like that specific human, but only that specific human. They also have a life span of about ten years. Yetis and Sasquatches were slaves of the Lycanthropes, but they turned on their masters. Unfortunately, while the Yetis escaped their masters, all the Sasquatch were killed, except for one guy, who is really cross about the whole thing. Vampires are snake-like creatures who use advanced tech, such as the sophisticated holograms they use to look human, and are part of vampire families, which operate like crime syndicates. Banshees are an all female race that live in the British Isles and are connected to nature, despising technology. They have powers like energy projection and flight, and they hate the Vampires. The feeling is mutual. The Vodun are a bit unusual. They are responsible for the notion of zombies, specifically of the Voodoo variety. Vodun are slugs that crawl down a person's throat and control their body. However, they can only do this with dead bodies. The Vodun desperately want to find a way to circumvent this problem and inhabit living bodies instead of rotting corpses. These species are the most important, but there are a few other alien races here and there, such as the Minotauri, who are minotaur bounty hunters, or the Aesiri, who come from a heavy gravity world and are thus nearly indestructible.

_Men in Black: The Series_ was mostly episodic, with only one or two major plot threads. Conversely, _Roswell Conspiracies_ has a very strong myth arc that runs through the entire series. There are several sets of two-part episodes, while _Men in Black_ only ever had one two-parter, and that was the finale. _Roswell Conspiracies_ opens with the two-part episode “The Bait,” the first of five two-part episodes. _Roswell Conspiracies_ has twists and turns, a conspiracy that runs from the first episode to the last, character development, all building up to a grand finale, told over four episodes, including the two-part conclusion. It is ambitious, certainly more-so than _Men in Black_ , and it tells its story well. I also feel that _Roswell Conspiracies_ was written for an older audience than _Men in Black: The Series_. It seems to give the viewer more credit and feels tonally closer to the _Men in Black_ films. Although it does tend to hint at the show's big plot twist often enough that it may be too easy to guess. Maybe not. I knew the plot twist before I saw the first episode so I can't say for sure how obvious it is.

I must stress that you cannot look this show up on Wikipedia, because the _Roswell Conspiracies_ page is littered with spoilers in the basic character descriptions. They reveal major plot twists right there for anyone to see. Even reading the descriptions for the alien races will spoil the endgame. Treat the whole page as a giant unmarked spoiler.

The main character of _Roswell Conspiracies_ is Nick Logan, a human bounty hunter. One day on the job his quarry turns out to be an alien, and he is left with many questions. The Alliance has taken an interest in him and covertly sends him to hunt down a rogue Banshee named Sh'lainn Blaze. Sh'lainn, who has a very thick Irish accent, disagrees with the banshee leader Queen Mab, and has become an outcast. Nick and Sh'lainn cross paths and the pair end up working for the Alliance. Nick's main reason for staying with the Alliance is that his dad was an Alliance agent, up until he disappeared when Nick was a boy. Nick is convinced that working with the Alliance will help him learn what happened to his father. Sh'lainn has nowhere else to go and ends up staying with the Alliance to be near Nick, whom she trusts. Nick, like his father, has a special ability. He can see through alien disguises like a Lycanthrope's shape-shifting or a Vampire's hologram. Sh'lainn, as a Banshee, can tell when a person is about to die, or, as this show makes clear, is in danger of dying. Nick will often cause Sh'lainn to wail and shout “ten seconds!” or “five seconds!” letting Nick know he's in danger, even when it's not apparent from what, and how long he has to live if he doesn't do something. As the series goes on, Nick and Sh'lainn get closer, so much so that, even when hundreds of miles away, Nick can still set off her wailing.

The Alliance is run by General James Rinaker. Rinaker sees aliens as a threat to humanity, which some are, and is forever having them rounded up and put in containment. Rinaker puts up with aliens like Sh'lainn that agree to work for the Alliance or are otherwise “under control.” While the Men in Black are definitely the good guys, comics notwithstanding, the Alliance is morally grey and Rinaker's actions make the viewer question if he's taking things too far. Nick and Rinaker do not get along. On one operation, Nick calls in an airstrike on a Lycanthrope weapons depot. However, Nick soon realizes that his weapons depot is also a hospital, and tries to call off the airstrike. Rinaker doesn't care and has the airstrike carried out anyway. There is a catchphrase on this show, “Thank you General Rinaker.” It's always said sarcastically, usually in response to Rinaker endangering his agents' lives for the sake of the mission. One time Nick and others break into Area 51 to destroy evidence of alien life with an incendiary bomb. Turns out that Rinaker gave them a pocket nuke and didn't tell anyone, hoping, presumably, to destroy Area 51 completely. The bomb ends up going off harmlessly over the desert, but Nick and the others aren't too happy about the incident, saying “Thank you General Rinaker.” Rinaker will do whatever it takes to keep humanity safe from aliens, even if that means sacrificing his own agents. He also has a set of keys that he always carries around and is constantly fiddling with.

Jefferson Trueblood is Rinaker's right hand man. He's the guy Rinaker trusts the most and is the one in charge when Rinaker's not around. Trueblood is kind of a hard-ass. He agrees with Rinaker's hardline anti-alien practices. At least, he does at the start of the series. As time goes by he starts to question if Rinaker's way is the best way.

Next are Fitz and Nema. These two work what is called Detail. You know how the MIB have a Neuralyzer that they can whip out at any time and use to erase anyone's memory of what just happened? The Alliance doesn't have that. Instead, they have Detail. Their entire job is to do whatever it takes to prevent the general populace from learning of the existence of the Alliance, and alien life in general. They have a lot of tricks to do this and watching them work is actually quite a joy, to me anyway. In the two-part opener they have to keep the public from connecting a train crash to Alliance activity. So Fitz dresses like a government agent while Nema anonymously tips off the media that the train was carrying chemical weapons. While Fitz is on camera the reporter covering the accident asks him about the chemical weapons, and, in the most suspicious manner possible, Fitz says “no, there was no phosgene gas aboard that train,” then darts away. Suddenly everyone is wondering what the hell phosgene gas has to do with anything and if the government is trying to cover something up. In Fitz's own words, “They'll be chasing the wrong leads till doomsday.” In another episode, an alien ship crash lands at a journalism convention. When everyone is wondering what that thing in the sky was, one guy starts shouting like a crazy person. “It's aliens!” he says. That guy was also working Detail. He shouted out the truth, but did so in such an extreme manner that you immediately question the validity of his claim. Would you agree with the crazy person shouting about aliens? No, odds are you wouldn't. This kind of stuff is sprinkled all through the show. It really shows an understanding of how humans think and the Detail team is just so creative. They act as comic relief a lot of the time, Fitz in particular, but you would never call these guys fools. They know exactly what they're doing. In the lore of this show, the Roswell Incident, with the crashed UFO and little grey men, was faked. The Alliance did that so people would focus on this one incident and thus ignore the reality that aliens have been here for centuries. Misdirection is the whole point of the Detail team and I love watching them work.

Ti-Yet is a yeti. In an early episode the Alliance investigates some missing people in the Himalayas. They find a tribe of Yeti who are trying to live in secret. To remain a secret they ended up kidnapping several mountaineers who stumbled upon them, then they put said mountaineers in cryogenic suspension. The tribe also has in their possession an EMP bomb they took from the Lycanthrope when they escaped slavery. Ti-Yet is the tribe leader and gives himself up to the Alliance so that his tribe can escape. A few episodes later the EMP bomb is stolen back by the Lycanthrope and Ti-Yet is called on to help find it and disarm it if necessary, because this particular bomb is powerful enough to end all life on Earth if it goes off. After that incident Ti-Yet is allowed to remain an Alliance operative.

One trademark of the Alliance is having equipment that is disguised as other equipment. There is a flashlight Alliance personnel will carry around, but it turns into a two pronged energy weapon. They drive trucks that transform into flying vehicles, and when Rinaker leaves Mount Willard it is usually in a large airship, one that turns into a warship.

Now, _Men in Black_ and _Roswell Conspiracies_ both a have a similar premise, but they have their differences. However, they both have an episode where an alien basically plays the role of Superman, with powers like flight and super strength. The _Men in Black_ episode “The Zero to Superhero Syndrome” has an alien who uses his extraterrestrial abilities to become a superhero. _Roswell Conspiracies_ has an episode called “Target Hero” with a nearly identical premise. In both cases the MIB and the Alliance don't like an alien playing hero, because they're afraid that the superhero antics are going to lead to people realizing that aliens are real. In _Men in Black_ the MIB know who the alien is, he's a regular Joe with a wife, they just want him to stop his superhero escapades. When he doesn't, Jay becomes a superhero to try and discourage the alien from flaunting his powers. In _Roswell Conspiracies_ , the Alliance doesn't know who this hero is, where he's from, or what he's doing here, so Nema is commissioned to get close to said superhero and learn why he's on Earth, what his intentions are, and to find a way to stop him. This is a good illustration of how the two shows differ. _Men in Black_ has a superhero smackdown and is played mostly for laughs. _Roswell Conspiracies_ plays up the mystery angle and is more subtle, with Nema being torn between doing her job and siding with this superhero who is just doing what he thinks is right.

If I were to go any further, I'd have to spoil some of the plot of _Roswell Conspiracies_ , and I absolutely refuse to do that. I like _Men in Black_ , but I love _Roswell Conspiracies_. It is a crying shame it's not more popular than it is. The _Men in Black_ movies are quite well known, and because of that you will find some people who are at least aware there is an animated series, but _Roswell Conspiracies_ is so under the radar that no one has ever heard of it. If you want a smartly written animated series, or if you liked any iteration of _Men in Black_ , or enjoyed stuff like _The X-Files_ or _Stargate SG-1_ and want something similar, I urge you to go out and watch _Roswell Conspiracies_.


End file.
